Yesterday at church I was pondering the Christ like quality that I wanted to work on this week. I never consider working on patience. I tend to describe myself as “not patient” like it is something I can’t change and knowing developing patience takes time I’ve resorted to “why bother?” In one of the talks patience was mentioned and I knew now was the time. The speaker shared a quote from Elder Uctdorf. “The lessons we learn from patience will cultivate our character, lift our lives, and heighten our happiness.” Yes, I want that. I went on to study his talk in greater detail. He states, “Indeed, patience is a purifying process that refines understanding, deepens happiness, focuses action, and offers hope for peace.” It is not just a skill of waiting but “actively working toward worthwhile goals and not getting discouraged when results don’t appear instantly or without effort. There is an important concept here: It means staying with something and doing all that we can—working, hoping, and exercising faith; bearing hardship with fortitude, even when the desires of our hearts are delayed.” I realize I need to be acting in my being patient. In Preach My Gospel it states a result of being patient, “you hold up under pressure and are able to face adversity calmly and hopefully.” I love the blessings that come from being patient. Now I see why I want to become a more patient person. ;)
With the New Year Aaron has focused on studying from Preach My Gospel and sharing a spiritual Book of Mormon message with the AP’s in our meeting with them. It has been interesting to see the learning that takes place as we have discussed what we have studied separately and then come together to share the insights we have gained. A companionship study taken to a new level.
With the kids having the day off they made the most of it. Zac had a game in the morning. Nice hustle and defense by Zac but they ended up with a loss. Jessie had a play-date with her friend Emma and her sister. They enjoyed playing outside in her backyard and then over on the school playground. Zac and Bode played basketball with the elders for their pday over at our church building for over 4 hours. While all the kids were out I did some laundry that had stacked up, emailed the missionaries, worked on my blog (this) and gathered over 30 days worth of exercise plans for the missionaries. I also sent them to Allie and her roommates. I even called her suggesting they video themselves doing the exercise routines typically found in magazines and rate the routines for fun factor, do-ablility, and effectiveness. I think there would be other college students interested in such knowledge. Here is yet another example of me being overboard on the suggestions and advice. ;)
Aaron finished up interviews on Tuesday while I continued to have the missionaries teach me (as a member) how I can introduce the Book of Mormon to a friend. It is never the same way so I am learning different ways to introduce the Book of Mormon as a result. It has been a fun process.
All night long, I was awoken to the pounding of rain on the house. That is very typical of any rainstorm here so I proceed with my normal routine. However by the time Zac was headed out the door for seminary the school district was notifying us of a 2-hour rain delay. I am still astonished that it is even possible to receive that much rain that it causes delays and no school. So while Utah has snow days we have rain days. ;) Even with the rain delay, Aaron and I had the opportunity to go to the temple as part of the quarterly temple trip for the missionaries. I love being in the temple. I always feel peace and love. I went with a desire in my heart for inspiration and guidance and sure enough I received what I needed. Now I just need to act on that inspiration. Once home I got to watch Jessie at gymnastics. She is excited to be tested to see if she can move up a level at the end of the month. Afterwards she and Natalie went to Activity Days to do a service project in the nursery. They weren’t very excited to clean all the toys. They were worried they would have to clean up spit up and slobber. ;) Funny girls. After dropping them off I went to watch Bode play his game. Unfortunately, it was a beating and them some. They stopped keeping score it was so bad. In his team’s defense, they were playing 8th graders that could dunk. Like, all of them!
As always I had a great visit with my visiting teaching group. We met to have frozen yogurt at Menchie’s. The yogurt was good but the message and sharing of experiences is what makes it worth it!
Jessie had career day on Friday. I scrambled to figure out how to dress her up as an architect. She also wanted to see if I could incorporate her being an actress, and singer too. I love her enthusiasm for being anything she wants to be. She’s a nonstop joy. Zac was tee’d up in his game yesterday, got into a shoving match and sat the bench the last few minutes of the game. Not very Christlike, but the kid he was defending didn’t like him in his grill and started shoving him; Zac decided he wouldn’t let that happen. He was benched the rest of the game and they ended up losing. ;) Otherwise, all is good in Texas Houston South.